After Afghanistan
INTERPRETIVE GUIDE
Interpretive guide
This guide has been designed for secondary and
senior secondary students and is intended to be used
in conjunction with the exhibition Ben Quilty: after
Afghanistan. The background information cited in
this guide has been taken from the catalogue to
this exhibition by Laura Webster.
This interpretive guide can be used as a pre- or postactivity or during your visit to the exhibition, or as a
stand-alone study of contemporary art or official war art.
The activities are intended to support the achievement
standards of the secondary Australian curriculum in
visual arts, particularly the objectives of Making and
Responding. They link to the secondary history
curriculum by encouraging students to:
• comprehend and research artworks from the past
to reinforce learning in history
•study artworks from a range of historical contexts,
in order to understand perspectives of people from
the past.
•undertake research with critical discernment and create
texts that demonstrate historical understanding.
This interpretive guide also provides senior secondary
students with the opportunity to:
•research and investigate the social, historical context
of visual art and its impact on society
•reflect on their own views and the perceptions of
others in order to further understand their own
and others’ work
•create their own response to social issues in order
to further challenge themselves and others.
official war Art scheme
The Australian Official War Art Scheme began in 1916,
during the First World War. Under the scheme, Australian
artists are commissioned to join Australian military
forces in conflicts or peacekeeping missions with
the aim of capturing the Australian experience of war.
Investigate
Research the Official War Art Scheme. How has official
war art changed since the scheme’s inception in 1916?
Give reasons for the changes, using the art of official
war artists to support your answer.
Reflect
As an official war artist, is it more important to record
or interpret what you see?
The following websites may be helpful in your research:
http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/war_artists/
artists.asp
http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/art/
http://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/sharedexperience/
ben Quilty
Ben Quilty was commissioned as an official war artist
for the war in Afghanistan in 2011 and spent three weeks
in Kabul, Kandahar, and Tarin Kowt. There he observed
and depicted his surroundings and the Australian service
personnel deployed on operations in Afghanistan under
Operation Slipper. Like earlier official war artists,
including George Lambert, Arthur Streeton, and Ivor Hele,
Quilty witnessed the harsh realities of the war and sought
to portray and interpret the personal experiences and
emotions of Australian servicemen and women.
“This very wild place”
The time spent in Afghanistan was an intense experience
for Quilty, one that has changed his life and outlook. As he
later commented, “I never wanted to go there, to be quite
honest with you. I didn’t want to go and risk my life. I didn’t
feel like it was a risk that I felt was worth taking for me ...
But I did feel strongly that there was a duty that I had
to do for some reason.” 1
Quilty found Afghanistan to be full of danger, violence,
and extreme situations, and referred to it as “this very
wild place”. 2 What to the soldiers seemed ordinary, must
have been extraordinary for Quilty. Kandahar Airfield
itself is a multinational base with approximately 35,000
people from the International Security Assistance Force,
local civilian staff, and aid organisations.
1
2
Ben Quilty, ABC Australian Story, ABC Interview, Tape 15, p. 5, 28 June 2012
Quilty, Australian Story, Tape 4, p. 2, 28 June 2012
Weapons are carried at all times by both military and
civilian personnel, creating a tense atmosphere with
a violent undercurrent. Quilty described Kandahar as
being a cross between the worlds of Mad Max: Beyond
Thunderdome and Catch 22, a surreal, dusty, and violent
place. As he recalled, “For the first week in Kandahar,
I basically felt like I was dodging rockets. The first night
we landed there, two or three rockets landed inside
the compound.” 3
ACTIVITIES
Quilty’s response to Kandahar is illustrated in his painting
of the same name.
The following websites may assist in your research:
http://www.awm.gov.au/blog/category/personalstories/page/2/;
http://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2011/08/01/outside-thewire-photographs-from-afghanistan/
Quilty the artist
Quilty’s work often alludes to his own personal history
and he employs a wide range of genres, including
portraiture, still life, and landscape. As a young art
student, Quilty was influenced by the possibilities implicit
in the works of the artists Frank Auerbach and Nicholas
Harding. He was drawn to the thick impasto painting
style of their works and these helped him find his own
painting language.4 As Quilty developed this language,
his work took on more gestural, organic forms; he began
to apply huge swathes of paint using large palette knives.
However, while his application is lush and the colours
are beautiful, his subject matter is often dark
and confronting.
ACTIVITIES
Create
Use Quilty’s impasto painting style and gestural forms
to portray an aspect of your own personal history.
Kandahar, 2011, oil on linen, 140 x 190 cm, acquired under the official
art scheme in 2012 AWM ART94525
Investigate
Read Quilty’s comments regarding his experiences as
an official war artist in Afghanistan in the transcript of
“War Paint”, Australian Story: http://www.abc.net.au/
austory/content/2012/s3581736.htm
How are Quilty’s emotions and reactions to Kandahar
captured in his painting? What does his painting suggest
about the environment in Afghanistan and nature of
life for Australian service personnel there?
Investigate
Use the websites below and your own research to
investigate the official war art of Arthur Streeton
and Ivor Hele:
http://www.awm.gov.au/people/8350.asp;
http://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/ivor_hele/ivor_hele.
asp#intro
http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww1.asp
http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww2.asp
Examine the paintings below:
Create
Research military life for Australians in Afghanistan.
Paint, draw or sculpt your own response to the war.
Show your work of art to a friend and ask them to explain
what they can see and sense in your work. Discuss with
them your response to the war in Afghanistan.
Reflect
If you could interview Ben Quilty about his experiences
as an official war artist in Afghanistan, what would you
want to know?
Arthur Streeton, Amiens, the key of the west,1918, oil on canvas,
overall 135.5 x 194.5 cm, AWM ART12436
3
4
Quilty, Australian Story, Tape 3, p. 9, 28 June 2012
Quilty, Australian Story, Tape 1, p. 13, 28 June 2012
Reflect
Air Commodore John Oddie, the former Deputy
Commander, Joint Forces in the Middle East, said: “Ben is
stunning in his insight, and so able to express those things
which we either don’t see or we’re not prepared to admit
in what we observe in our military minds.” 8
What does Air Commodore Oddie mean by the term
“military minds”? How do you think Quilty is able to
see more than his subjects can?
the artist and his subjects
Ivor Hele, Walking wounded, Missim Trail, 1944, oil on canvas,
overall 101.1 x 116cm, AWM ART22561
Select one of these works of art and, paying attention
to technique, subject, and use of colour, compare the
artist’s depiction of war with Quilty’s Kandahar (2011).
How are they similar/different? Suggest reasons why.
themes in Quilty’s art
In the past Quilty’s work has often examined ideas of
masculinity and how young men in particular are initiated
into contemporary Australian society.5 Notions of
mortality, masculinity, and the often painful national
history of Australia are also explored in relation to his
own personal experiences. Much of his work has been
about what Quilty calls the “glorification of decline” that
is prevalent in Australian history and culture.6 He often
created images that demonstrated the self-destructive
nature of Australian males. Accepting the Australian
War Memorial’s official war artist commission thus
seemed like a logical step in the progression of his career.
As Quilty commented, “The opportunity to go and work
with these young men in Afghanistan was almost the
height of my exploration of the way masculinity
plays itself out in our culture.” 7
Investigate
Explore the themes of masculinity and mortality
in Quilty’s war art paintings. Use examples.
7
8
9
5
6
During his three-week deployment to Afghanistan,
Quilty decided to engage socially with the Australians
rather than merely observe their activities. Sitting
and talking with them, he became intrigued by their
experiences and came to feel responsible for telling
the stories of these young men and women.
The artist was able to win the soldiers’ trust in
Afghanistan, and several even sat for larger portraits
in his studio after they returned to Australia. As part
of his initial idea for the war artist commission, Quilty
photographed soldiers of the Special Operations Task
Group in Afghanistan in the same pose. He asked each
of them to face the sun with their eyes closed, then open
them and stare into the blinding light, at which point he
would take the photograph. As he explained, “To me,
this symbolises what they’re facing, something immense,
overwhelming.” 9 After returning to Australia, Quilty
began making portraits from these photographs.
After painting several portraits from these photographs,
Quilty found that they failed to capture the experience
of sitting with the soldiers, talking to them, and making
drawings of them. Instead, Quilty wanted to create
portraits from live sittings, so he asked some of the
soldiers he had met to come to his studio in the
Southern Highlands of New South Wales.
When the soldiers arrived in his studio, Quilty suggested
that they sit for their portraits naked. He was not
interested in creating a traditional heroic male nude,
a style that had often attributed semi-divine status
to the sitter. Instead, he wanted to capture the sheer
physicality and presence of these men and women.
Quilty needed to see the skin, the body, removed from
its protective layers of uniform and body armour.
Michael Desmond, “Ben Quilty: God’s middle children”, 2007. www.benquilty.com/text.php?text=20120316135303 (accessed 13 October 2011)
Talk by Ben Quilty, School of Art, Australian National University, Canberra, 22 August 2012
Quilty, Australian Story, Tape 3, pp. 3–4, 28 June 2012
Air Commodore John Oddie, Australian Story transcript, p. 1, 3 September 2012
Ben Quilty, quoted in Janet Hawley, “Tour of duty”, Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald, 4 February 2012
Each soldier was asked to select a pose that reflected
an aspect of his or her experience. Some of them drew
on an actual event from their deployment, such as taking
cover to engage insurgents, others on the tiredness
or emotions they felt after their return to Australia.
“Trooper M” in the painting below, was in the Special
Operations Task Group (SOTG) as a medic before leaving
the Australian Defence Force. The mission for members
of the SOTG is to find and destroy the enemy and secure
the Uruzgan province, which means they have one of
the most dangerous military jobs in Afghanistan. SOTG
members place themselves in danger almost every time
they leave the security of their base in long-range patrol
vehicles or on Chinook or Black Hawk helicopters.10
Trooper M, after Afganistan no. 2, 2012, oil on linen, 170 x 180 cm,
collection of the artist, OL00628.012
Discuss the impact of Quilty’s nude portraits of Australian
servicemen, in light of these different traditions.
psychological effects of war
The soldiers’ experience of war and the emotional fatigue
and stress that can affect them have long been themes in
war art and histories of war. General Douglas MacArthur,
Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the South-West
Pacific Area during the Second World War, acknowledged
the emotional toll war could have upon those who fight:
“The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the
soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds
and scars of war.” 11
Observe the stress and exhaustion captured in
Will Dyson’s Coming out on the Somme (1916), and the
psychological distress displayed in Albert Tucker’s
portrait Psycho, Heidelberg Military Hospital (1942).
Will Dyson, Coming out on the Somme, 1916, charcoal, pencil,
brush and wash on paper, 56 x 47.2 cm, AWM ART02276
Investigate
Examine the painting. What does Trooper M’s chosen
pose suggest about his experiences in Afghanistan?
How could Quilty’s studio painting methods have assisted
Australian soldiers in dealing with their memories and
emotions when they returned home?
Reflect
The male nude has been a dominant and accepted theme
in the history of art since classical times. These nudes
often depict heroic, largely idealised figures. From the
nineteenth century onwards, however, the focus has
shifted largely to the female form in various guises.
In the nudes, both male and female, of contemporary
artists such as Lucien Freud or Marc Quinn, the
intention is to convey a more truthful, even sometimes
unflattering, view of the human form.
Albert Tucker, Psycho, Heidelberg Military Hospital, 1942,
carbon pencil, coloured wax crayons, brown pastel,
gouache on paper, overall 25 x 17.9 cm, AWM ART28305
I an McPhedran, “Feats of Australian Special Operations Task Group’s heroism remain top secret”,
The Daily Telegraph, 4 July 2012: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/feats-of-australianspecial-operations-task-groups-heroism-remain-top-secret/story-e6freuy9-1226416177932
11
Taken from General MacArthur’s Thayer Award speech, “Duty, honour, country”, 12 May 1962.
www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/au-24-352mac.htm (accessed 12 October 2012)
10
Air Commodore John Oddie, after Afghanistan, no. 2, 2012, oil on linen, 170 x 150 cm,
collection of Kate Smith Art Consultant, OL00633.001
ACTIVITIES
Research
Select either Will Dyson, Coming out of the Somme,
or Albert Tucker, Psycho, Heidelberg Military Hospital,
and compare the artist’s treatment of stress and emotion
with Quilty’s painting of Air Commodore John Oddie.
Create
Read Air Commodore Oddie’s comments in the transcript
of “War Paint”, which explores Ben Quilty’s experience
as an official war artist on Australian Story:
http://abc.net.au/austory/content/2012/s3581736.htm
Write a letter, diary entry or other creative response,
explaining the effects of Oddie’s personal memories and
feelings from his time as Deputy Commander of Joint
Forces in the Middle East.
Investigate
A true portrait is one that captures a “true likeness”
to the sitter. Discuss this statement in relation to Quilty’s
portraits of military personnel.
For more information, read:
Michael Desmond, “Is the Truth of Portraiture Vested
Exclusively in Likeness?” www.portrait.gov.au/UserFiles/
file/Portrait21.pdf
12
Oddie, Australian Story, Tape 9, p. 2, 29 June 2012
Reflect
Air Commodore Oddie said, “In a human sense I had to
actually accept the fact that there’s an apparent truth
there. I wasn’t always admitting the truth to myself about
my life. And so he really took that out and put it on a table
in front of me like a three course dinner, and said ‘well how
about that?’ And you know, I sort of thought ‘well I’m not
going to come to this restaurant again in a hurry!’” 12
What “truth” is Air Commodore Oddie referring to?
How does this relate the notion of “true likeness”
discussed in Michael Desmond’s article?
READING LIST
Ben Quilty. www.benquilty.com
“Ben Quilty” Current: contemporary art from Australia
and New Zealand. Art and Australia. Paddington, NSW:
Dott Publishing, 2008. pp. 260–263.
Rex Butler, Painting after the end of art
(Melbourne Art Fair). Brisbane: Jan Murphy Gallery, 2006.
www.benquilty.com/Essays/Butler.html
Tracey Clement, “The fast and furious world of
Ben Quilty.” Australian Art Collector 45
(July–September 2008).
Michael Desmond, “Ben Quilty: God’s Middle Children.”
Pride and Patriotism. Exhibition catalogue. Redfern,
NSW: GRANTPIRRIE.
www.benquilty.com/Essays/Desmond1.html
Michael Desmond, “Is the Truth of Portraiture Vested
Exclusivity in Likeness?” Portrait 21 (2006): pp. 8–13.
www.portrait.gov.au/UserFiles/file/Portrait21.pdf
David Lebbick, Nude Male: 21st Century Visions, …
Clare Lewis, Ben Quilty: ache. Exhibition catalogue.
Redfern, NSW: GRANTPIRRIE, 2006.
www.benquilty.com/Essays/Lewis.html
Jacqueline Millner, Ben Quilty: life’s what you’re doing
while you’re waiting to die. Exhibition catalogue.
Sydney: Maunsell Wickes, 2005.
Lisa Slade, Ben Quilty live!, Brisbane, University of
Queensland Art Museum, 2009, p. 14
“War Paint” transcript, Australian Story,
Monday 3 September 2012 (accessed 23 January 2013).
http://abc.net.au/austory/content/2012/s3581736.htm
Laura Webster, Ben Quilty: after Afghanistan, Exhibition
catalogue. Australian War Memorial, Canberra, ACT, 2013